


Bridging the Gaps

by phasmasarmor



Series: Stars that Fill Polluted Skies [1]
Category: Star Wars
Genre: F/F, F/M, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2019-01-11
Packaged: 2019-09-12 11:20:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16871983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phasmasarmor/pseuds/phasmasarmor
Summary: A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…Ten years have passed since the burning of Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Temple. Kylo Ren continues his search for Skywalker to put to rest any hope the New Republic would have of using him to their own advantage. In the process, however, Ren must play nice with a high-ranking officer of the First Order’s Naval Forces, General Vinh Hux.Hux, however, has his own orders from Snoke: capture the Vulloise System, be it by force or by forging an alliance with the system’s monarch, a young woman by the name of Selenia La’ras III. Even after suffering a severe injury, Hux is willing to do whatever it takes to do his duty.





	1. peace.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo returns to the place he feels most at peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> edit: March 7th, 2019 
> 
> I'm going through these and editing them as I'm not quite happy with how I did them. I was much more worried about being able to say I posted them than actually editing them and making them look good, so that's my own sorta project.

     Kylo has never admitted it to anyone, but he feels most at home in Snoke’s citadel.

  
     It was a castle of dark stone and crumbling towers, a ruin in some ancient forest on a planet whose name has been lost to the ages. Perhaps it didn’t hold the warmth of a traditional home, but fire always burned in his heart to return. Snoke played at being his guardian, someone who cared for him deeply but cared more for watching as his power grew. He didn’t mind so much, though. He had somewhere to call his home, and he had… someone.

     Snoke is nowhere to be found upon his arrival, though. Their quarters are empty and there is no fire in the hearth. The maids, if they have seen them, say nothing as Kylo stalks past them in his search. When he’s finally satisfied that they’re keeping away from him, he takes what few belongings he has and stows them away in the storage room he claimed as his quarters. He changes into something lighter – a simple shirt and pants and, as always, his boots, and makes the trek into the woods to meditate. He does his best to relish in his surroundings, as this walk always helped him to destress after any number of missions. A time for reflection before he would settle down and meditate on his findings.

  
     The wind whispers through the branches above him and the distant babbling of the stream not too far off from the palace. A lone crow calls out its hoarse song above his head, and he looks up. The crow watches Kylo, her feathered head cocked one way, and Kylo watches the crow, in turn, his head cocked the other. Soon, the bird takes wing again and he goes on his own way, with no other birdsong to walk to.

  
     Finally, he reaches it, the edge of his murky pond with too many dead things to see how far it went and the rock that served as his seat during each of his visits. He sits and presses each palm to the rock and closes his eyes. Beneath his fingers, he feels the gentle hum of life in the rock itself, the soil beneath it, each tree that surrounds him and the creatures that live in them. The stream – he can feel it too, the deep rumble to the otherwise faint hum. The crow shrieks in the air. Life. The symphony of it sparks his rejuvenation. He takes a breath.

  
    _Focus harder._

  
     He reaches deeper into the earth, to the old bones of those that lived here a millennium before even Snoke took their first breath. Old bones, yes, and the organisms that picked them clean. He wonders what their names were. What they did. How they survived. How they died.

  
      _Move on. Focus._

  
     Electricity sparks behind him. A servant, he’s sure, from her unsure steps over the fallen trees and their fungi, over the snake that hunts for better prey than a nervous human girl. The crow calls again. Kylo squeezes his eyes tighter, tighter. Stay away, he forces into her thoughts. Go back.

  
     “Sir?” The nervous voice asks, and he growls. His eyes open slowly, enough to see the ripples in the water fading and the rocks he had pulled up fall to the earth again.  
     He turns his head but will not look at her. He does not need to, to know it’s the girl Snoke favored. A girl of thirteen, they’d told him, sold in the slave markets of Zilvatis. Despite her age, she’s tall and pretty, with auburn hair that falls over her shoulder in a braid that Snoke no doubt taught her. Fear holds her eyes, but it doesn’t take the rest of her features so easily. He wonders what she’s thinking, but he won’t bother to search through her thoughts. Not this time. “Ada. What do you need?”

 

     “The Supreme Leader is searching for you. She said you would be here.”

  
      _So, they’re playing at Mother again._ “Then why not come here themselves?” he growls. The girl tenses and is about to apologize, but he raises his hand to silence her. “Don’t. Go back to the citadel. These woods are no place for you.” Kylo moves from his rock and looks up to catch one last glance at the crow before nodding to her. “Go on. I will follow.”

  
     Ada nods once and does as she’s told, hurrying back the way she came. With a sigh, he begins the journey back, but he won’t hurry as she does. He wants to linger in the forest’s warmth and thrum of life for just a moment longer. But Snoke isn’t happy, he can tell so much, but he can’t name the problem. He’d done his duty. Things were tidy. He was out of their hair and left them to do as they do (which he truly has no idea what they do, while he’s away). What could have possibly gone wrong in the last hour that couldn’t wait until this evening?

  
     The girl’s auburn hair catches in the light as she races between the trees, doing her best not to lose her footing or dirty the slacks she worked in. It’s almost amusing to watch, but he doesn’t laugh. He only watches out for her and follows along, willing things out of her path every so often until they reach the clearing Snoke’s palace sits in. Nothing wants to grow too close, it appears, save for the patches of grass desperate for life. He wonders still why they would choose this place, out of all the ruins in the galaxy, to call their home. Perhaps it was the peace and quiet. The atmosphere? Nostalgia, perhaps? He hasn’t asked, and he doesn’t expect he would get an answer if he did. Snoke didn’t speak of themselves or their past. There is only the present, and Kylo’s abilities, reminding him who is in charge, and the little servant girls like Ada who seemed ever-passing through the ruins.

  
     The girl disappears through a wooden side door, back to the kitchens. Snoke doesn’t call to him, though. Dread sits on his shoulders as he heads through the hole in the wall that served as the entrance. All he sees, though, are the tail ends of skirts as servants scurry from sight. No Supreme Leader.

  
_Master._

  
_Find me_. Three voices, a strange call of man, woman, and beast all wrapped into one say.

  
     He follows the echoes of the servants’ steps down a corridor. He passes Jera's room and Titus’. Hawke peeks her head out of her quarters to wave at him as he goes by, but the search takes precedence. _What is the matter?_

  
_Find me._

  
     He reaches the tower staircase. Each time he goes up, he finds himself anxious for them to collapse beneath him. Perhaps then he wouldn’t have to face Snoke, their missions or... them at all. They unsettled him, no matter the disguise they wore. The pretty mother with hair the color of blood; the father, with a stern though pleasant voice; or the monster that commanded the Order, the true form of theirs. With a sigh, he hurries himself up the staircase and is certain he hears the sound of the rock shifting beneath his steps. Dread, the little monster on his shoulders, tenses his muscles. He’s getting close, then.  
 

   The hall leading to the Supreme Leader’s bedchambers is lit by candlelight and only that. Whatever had served as windows in the centuries past had been covered by red velvet curtains that blacked out what natural light that may seep through the dirty glass panes. Without giving it much thought, Kylo reaches out as he walks past them, fingers gliding along the material and a faint smile tugs at his lips. When he reaches the door to their room, however, the smile leaves and his arm drops heavily to his side.

  
     “Enter,” a woman’s voice calls, and he does. The room, while just as old as the castle, is filled to the brim with things Snoke had been gifted by the First Order. A holopad sits propped in front of The Mother, a holodeck in the corner nearest the bed. A rug from some planet he didn’t care to remember much of, a painting from some king he’s certain they had him kill, later on, things to fill the space.

  
     “Supreme Leader.” He says it stiffly, bowing his head for but a moment.

  
     Snoke doesn’t turn his way, watching whatever sits before them as they stroke a hand through the blood red hair. “You didn’t meet me here when you arrived.”

  
     His lips twitch, daring to frown, but he doesn’t allow them. Snoke would nitpick. “I was not aware you were here.”

  
     “I have always had you meet with me upon your return. I shouldn’t have to tell you this, by now. It should be done whether or not I am within your sight.” They look over their shoulder briefly. “You ought to have learned how to look with more than just your eyes to find what you are looking for.”

  
     “And I have.”

  
     “For your own entertainment. You find only the dead things in the ground and the snakes slithering at your feet, not your Master. You but glanced into the hall and found I wasn’t there. Am I working you so hard you’ve become lazy?” Snoke clicks their tongue.

  
     He fixes his gaze on a spot just past their face, the blue screen on the holopad. “I’m sorry.”

  
     They hum their reply, and though it isn’t a sound of acceptance, they’ll drop it for now. “Your knights are growing restless, and I have a mission for you. Perhaps it’d be beneficial to.. get them out, for a time?”

  
     He’s silent for a moment. “May I ask what the mission entails?”

  
     “You’ll be traveling with General Hux to Aynia, in the Yastao System. You’ll meet with the Queen, as he does, and you will take care of a pest problem for her. The Knights can accompany you in that.”

  
     “Have I a choice?” He knows the answer to that question. They turn and give him a look.

  
     “No.”

  
     Kylo just nods.

  
     Snoke stands, finally. Though not in their true form, they are taller than a human’s average and slender. A red robe is wrapped around them, yet they pull it tighter as they move towards him. “I will be receiving another gift – one from the Hux family.”

  
     Of course. He wants to laugh. If General Hux wasn’t sucking up to the Supreme Leader, his father was. “And what gift are they gracing you with this time, Supreme Leader?”

  
     “A dreadnought they’ve named _The Supremacy_ , of all things.”

  
      _Clever_. “Hm. Congratulations, then.”

  
     “When you return from this next mission,” they continue, “it will be to the ship. No longer will this ruin be your home. It’s time to move on. However, I will allow you this evening to rest. You leave tomorrow night, and no later.”

  
     “Go and prepare your Knights.” They motion for him to step from their doorframe, and he does.

  
     The door shuts.

  
     “Quite the journey awaits you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wrapping up chapters is very, very hard I'm Sorry


	2. pain.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hux deals with pain, rehabilitating, and Snoke.

     Hux can never have a moment to himself. 

     As a child, there was the noise of the dinner parties his parents would host. As he made his way through the Academy, there was the noise of his fellow cadets and the teachers. When he joined his first task force, he had the noise of his fellow operatives. Even now, a General of the First Order, commander of Supreme Leader Snoke's own fleet, the noise never has died down between visits to the holochamber, to meetings, to-- well, now, it's the _thud!_ of a training staff smacking hard against the side of his head. 

     "General,” Phasma says flatly. “Pay attention.”

     He raises his palm to rub at his temple, his vain attempt at easing the pain there. “I am.”

     “You aren’t,” she replies. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have gotten hit. Raise your staff.” She does just that, taking an offensive position, ready to pounce. Even out of her armor, she isn’t small. She towered over him with ease, and her eyes, piercingly blue, are enough to unnerve the strongest of men. Her blonde hair is cut short, as per Stormtrooper regulations and perhaps a bit her own preference. Even in the Academy, she always kept her hair shorter than needed. “Hux. Raise your staff.”

     He does as he is told. With the staff raised, he gives her one stiff nod.

     Satisfied, she begins the exercise, thrusting the wooden staff towards his stomach. Hux feels his muscles tighten and his body urging him already to recoil. Instead, however, he swings his staff downwards to knock it off track. “Very good.” Phasma nods and retracts the staff. “But don’t tense so much. You’re doing your muscles no favors.”

     “This is not easy on them,” Hux retorts. He lets his arms drop and he rolls his shoulders. They have only been at it for twenty minutes and they already ache.

     She shrugs her shoulder in a noncommittal shrug. “Rehabilitation isn’t easy, sir. You opted out of the easy part.”

     _As though I had much a choice._ Snoke told him a speedy return was necessary. They couldn’t delay, and clearly, no one else on this ship has been deemed competent enough to take charge in his absence. Phasma comes close enough, though “I did,” he says, raising his staff.

    “Perhaps next time, you’ll try harder not to get shot.”

     The look he gives her is not a kind one. “Thank you, Captain, for your advice. It is greatly appreciated.”

     Phasma nods. “Has it fully healed?” She asks though she does not give him the opportunity to answer before bringing her staff down hard. He’s a bit slow to block it, and the staff just barely misses his wrist. When he shoots her a glare, she cocks her brow. “Has it?”

     Despite the resistance, Hux pushes the staffs, together, upwards, far enough to allow him to kick her stomach. She stumbles backward with a sharp gasp. “No,” he replies, a pleased smile spreading. “Not quite yet.”

    There’s a ghost of a grin on her face as she straightens herself. Perhaps it’s but a trick of the light because it is gone as soon as it’s come. She takes on a more serious tone and if he didn’t know better, he would think that worry infected her tone. “If you bust your patch, Vinh Hux—”

     “I won’t,” he interjects. Then quickly adds, “Aria Phasma.”

     She scowls.

     He grins.

***

     They return to their exercise, but by the end of it, it isn’t as rigorous as Phasma had started out. She doesn’t go easy on him, but she’s gentler, more mindful of how hard she hits and where her blows land. There’s part of him that hates her for babying him so much, but overall, he’s thankful. The healing wound on his side isn’t too happy about the activity, but the bandage has just managed to stay put. The pair depart after setting their next training session. He insists on tomorrow, but eventually, after some insistence from Phasma, settles for next week. She’s a good friend, he thinks. A very good friend indeed.

     He settles in his quarters for the night, curling up onto the terrible blue couch once he’s finished a (quick and careful guarding his side the whole bloody time) shower. Despite the appearance of peace, he pulls up his holopad and goes through meeting notes, questions from his underlings, important messages of the like. His head still aches from his training session with the Captain, but the pain in his side has only grown more intense. More than once does the idea of trekking to the medbay to get something, anything to ease the pain sound appealing, but the journey itself is what stills him.  Another fleeting thought is to seek out Ren – he’d eased his pain in the past, after all, with some use of the Force. He didn’t like to ask for his help, though. There’s always some price to pay with him. What would he gain from being useful for once? Tss.

     There’s also the fact that he isn’t even aboard _The Finalizer_.

     Hux wills himself to stand, groaning softly. It’s early, though, too early for sleep, but the pain from the session and his side and – he groans again as the holopad chimes, screen blinking gently.

     _Incoming Message from: Phasma, Aria V.: No Subject._

     There are worse people that could be bothering him so late. He taps the notification.

     _Phasma, Aria V.: No Subject: Received at 00:13_

_General Hux,_

_The Supreme Leader wishes to speak with you at once._

_Captain Phasma._

     … Never mind that sentiment. Why Snoke couldn’t have just contacted him directly is beyond him – he wonders if they just enjoy watching their underlings squirm. It must be amusing.

     He doesn’t respond to Phasma, electing instead to do as instructed and get ready. Begrudgingly, he pulls on his boots, and perhaps he takes his time lacing them up. By 00:30, he’s making his way, with careful and deliberate steps, to the holochamber. The night shift is just shuffling in and the last, out, with sleep making their eyes terribly heavy. He envies them, but the feeling doesn’t last for very long. The biting chill of the holochamber brings him an unwelcome revitalization, a chill that runs bone deep. He does his best to fight a shiver off and manages just in time for the blue and ugly hologram of the Supreme Leader Snoke takes shape before him.

     “General, I trust your arrival in the Yastao system has treated you well?”

     He nods, and before he can answer otherwise, Snoke continues.

     “Good. I expect the meeting with Selenia La’ras to go swimmingly, especially now that Kylo Ren will be joining you. His main goal is not your own, but the pair of you will have to play nice. Is that understood?”

     “Of course, Supreme Leader.” Are they children now, to be scolded as such? It’s no secret he and Ren aren’t friends, nor do they tend to be the kindest to one another, but they play nice. Just before his last mission, Ren was particularly pleasant, going so far as to not offering snide commentary on the meeting they both were forced into attending.

    Snoke appears, for a moment, to just watch him, considering something in their strange-looking head. After a time of this strange consideration, a pleased look crosses their face and they nod. "Very good. I have more preparations to make. You have three days, General."

     The image flickers and disappears. A strange feeling of ease sets over him. The pain in his side lifts slowly, with an equally slow sigh leaving him. He's thankful for it but knows the reverse effect will swiftly be dealt to him if he disappoints the Supreme Leader. 

     Now would be a good time to begin preparing for Aynia. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i lov my son :(((


End file.
